Marketing is the lifeblood of any business. Without it, you need to rely solely on word-of-mouth recommendations or your reputation. If you're Annie Leibovitz, that's fine.

For the rest of us, you'll likely need some marketing for your photography business to remain sustainable by attracting new clients. We've put together ten key points to help you with your marketing plan. It's important to keep marketing near the top of your weekly to-do list because it's just that critical.

Here are 11 easy photography marketing ideas to help you elevate your business profile.

1. Customised Marketing

While there are some common or generic elements to a marketing plan, there also should be some customizations of your marketing plan. 

• Identify your audience and target your marketing toward them. 

• Be both specific and broad when you're customizing your marketing. For example, if you are a portrait photographer (broad), do you also specialize in bridal photography (specific)? Market to both audiences. 

• Let your passion for your work come through in your marketing. 

• Your marketing plan should include networking as a way to market your work. Connect with other professionals in your industry and related industries. For example, a wedding photographer could work with a floral wedding designer on a photoshoot to promote both of your online business ideas.

2. Write a Blog

Keep your website dynamic - which helps SEO - by writing a blog. If you're not comfortable writing, you can hire a ghostwriter to help you with content. The important thing is to have a blog that you update regularly. 

Here are some tips for your blog:

• Think of blogging as a way to connect with current and potential clients.

• Just like you need to know your audience when you are marketing, you need to know for whom you're writing. Post the content of interest to your readers - or you won't have readers for very long!

• You can use your blog for advertising promotions, giveaways, or offer tips on photography. 

• Blog posts don't have to be lengthy.  

• You can use your blog to highlight your portfolio.

• Give clients a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your work by taking and posting images.

• A blog is an opportunity to display your expertise. That can help you attract new clients.

• Learn a little bit about SEO for photographers to attract readers to your site.

• A blog is like free marketing.

3. Create an Email List

When people visit your website, a pop-up should invite them to register for your newsletter - the one you're going to start if you're not doing it already. At the very least, it could invite them to register to receive your blog posts. Why? Because it allows you to build an email list of clients and potential clients. 

• Use your email list to stay in touch with clients, offer promotions through there, and send them your latest blog post or other relevant information to them. You can also push out photography tips for when they're acting as their own photographers.

• Also, be sure to invite them to follow you on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. More on social media later.

• Consider a free account like Mail Chimp or pay a small fee for paid email platforms such as Constant Contact or Vertical Response. You need to send out regular mailings without overdoing it. No one wants their email inboxes flooded. So no more than once a week and no less than once a month should do it. Take your cues from your audience. It could be that even once a week is too much.  

4. Referrals

A great way to attract new clients is to create a referrals program to incentivize current clients to refer their friends to you. Offer an existing client a good discount or a gift of some sort for referring a friend. Be sure to remind them of the gift offer regularly, but, in general, it is a good idea to tell your clients that you always appreciate the word of mouth referrals.

Another tactic is to create a contest that you promote across social media. Ask your social media followers to tag a friend on a post to be entered into a gift giveaway. On a pre-determined and pre-announced date, draw a name from those people who tagged friends. It is a great way to get your social media accounts (and your name) introduced by your friends and clients with minimal effort on their part!

5. Use Social Media Marketing

There are several social media platforms for photographers on which you should be active. That means regularly post, by the way. Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook are just three ways to gain exposure at no cost. You can advertise in social media - typically, at lower prices than most print adds. Social media can increase your visibility with potential clients. 

•  Instagram is an ideal platform for photographers because it's mostly about visual content. It's popular with creatives. The number of followers started out being critical, but the latest algorithms seem to favor short comments (two or three words). 

• Pinterest boards are for the benefit of your target audience or current clients. Use boards to offer ideas for your clients' photo sessions. Keep the boards related to your genre. Create various boards and be strategic in your tags. You can schedule your pins. 

• Facebook isn't quite what it used to be for creatives and organisations, including businesses. Strangely, Facebook's algorithms seem to no longer favor their own Pages or Groups, so we wouldn't rely on it as your primary social media platform. The easiest way to use it is to load content onto Instagram and set it to cross-post to FB.

6. Find Partners & Work With Others

There is strength in numbers, as the adage states. Use your work to find reputable partners to collaborate on co-marketing plans. For example, a wedding photographer could work with a floral wedding designer on a photoshoot to promote both of your businesses.

A real estate or architectural photographer could collaborate with a real estate agent, a landscape photographer with a landscaping company, or a plant nursery. There are many possibilities! 

Identify potential partners and reaching out to them to suggest ideas you have for working together. 

Your end goal is to develop a relationship that is beneficial to both professionals. When you make your initial approach, focus on what you can do for them, and discuss how the collaboration could be mutually beneficial. 

6. The Impact of Reviews

Reviews can break a career these days. There are countless places where a client can leave a comment that can sing your praises or trash your career. If you want great reviews (and a lengthy photography career), you need to offer superb customer service and produce terrific work for your clients. 

• Once the good reviews start rolling in, be sure to use them in marketing material, including your website, and update them several times a year, at a minimum. 

• Feature reviews on social media, blog posts, and print materials. 

• We also suggest profiling clients through your blog. People like to see and hear from others as they determine whether to work with a professional.

7. Pro-bono Work

Another way to gain professional exposure is to donate your work to a charity for a limited project or collaboration. There can be tax benefits from in-kind donations. We aren't suggesting that you spend a lot of time working for free. You do have to pay your bills, after all.

However, donating a few hours of your free time to a charity whose mission you believe in can also be a mutually beneficial partnering. You can donate a photography package or taking some pictures for a nonprofit's website. That not only gives you additional work experience, but it might also lead to some work opportunities. 

8. Networking Groups or Events

There can be some significant advantages to joining some networking groups, whether for in-person meetings or online forums and attending networking events. You get to meet other professionals in the industry from whom you might learn or share a few things, but you also get your name out. There are many kinds of networking groups that might be helpful for you:

• photography or photographer's networking group

• an industry networking event or group

• a group or one-off event dedicated to a professional topic 

• a small business networking group like a Rotary Club

Think of these groups as a form of advertising.

9. Use Google Business Pages

Have you heard of Google Business Pages? It's one way to improve the likelihood that people find you on Google if they're searching for a photographer in your area.

Typically, Google's algorithms put the business profiles first, then organic listings after that. While Google business listings are free, you do need a physical business address/location.

You can read more about it here.

10. Create a Brand

It's hard to market something that doesn't have a brand identity. Creating, building, and marketing your brand is key to your overall success and longevity as a business. Your brand is more than your name and logo. It's your identity or your image. It's what someone thinks when they see your name, logo, or your work.

A good example is the Nike brand. People see the swoosh logo and immediately associate it with Nike sports equipment and whatever opinion they have of its quality. Some photographers are fairly recognizable by their style, like an Ansel Adams or Annie Leibovitz portrait.

It can take time to build a recognizable brand, particularly as a small business owner, but it's critical to get it right. It is a critical long-term to your success:

• Your branding should appeal to your ideal client. 

• Your personality and style are a significant part of your brand.

• How you treat clients and other professionals you interact with matters to shaping your brand.

• A client's experience is a critical part of building a good brand. (Remember the importance of client reviews we discussed earlier.)

• How you make others feel can shape your brand and can win or lose you clients.

11. Website

We've saved the most obvious for last! Your website is your virtual storefront and is often what most clients see before they speak with you or walk into your studio. It's a free advertisement if you put other methods in place to attract potential clients. Your website must be impeccable.

A poorly designed or structured website with poor grammar reflects poorly on you as a professional and isn't likely to entice someone into calling you. Hire a content writer if you don't like writing and hire a professional website designer or use a high-quality website design platform. However you do it, do it well so that your website reflects well on you!

In sum

Most businesses fail due to inadequate or insufficient marketing. You don't have to have a degree in business marketing to market your business and get your name out as you try to attract clients.

You can spend a fortune to hire someone with expertise in marketing, or you can take it into your own hands by employing some of our suggestions. It's not rocket science. With a little bit of time and some work, you can improve your marketing.